Happy Birthday
by ElphabaROCKS
Summary: Elphaba is not having a very good day; guards are chasing her, she loses her hat, and top it all off, it's her birthday! Intermission fic, hinted Fiyeraba.


**I do believe I'm slightly obsessed with intermission Fiyeraba, especially the idea of Elphaba and Fiyero secretly communication/talking occasionally. Which might explain the increasingly alarming amount of them I've written :-)**

**Disclaimer: See my story **_**The Ultimate Disclaimer.**_

This time, the shots had been much too close for comfort. Elphaba swore as she climbed higher, examining where a bullet had pierced through her cloak, but missed her by inches. She had been stupid to stay so close to a town where she knew there were several Wizard supporters. Next time, the Gale Force might be ever nearer and their aim a good deal better.

Sighing, Elphaba looked at the horizon where the sun was peaking its final rays. Perhaps spying on the town hadn't been such a bad idea after all, for at least she now knew the date.

March 17. Her birthday.

How bitterly ironic that when she got the luxury of knowing the date was her least favorite day of the year. Birthdays had never been pleasant experiences for her, and today was certainly no exception. In fact, it might be right up there for worst-ever, matched only with when she had to go shopping with Nessa all day at age 14.

A strong gust of wind blew against her, knocking the broom backwards. Instinctively, she reached for her hat.

Elphaba's heart skipped a beat and she gasped. There was nothing on her head. Looking around frantically, she did not see it falling below or caught in the gusty wind around her. Either she lost when she took off or left it there.

_Think, Elphaba, think_ she commanded herself, _when was the last time you saw the hat?_ After a long moment, she sighed in relief, then gasped again. The hat, Elphaba remembered, had been left concealed among a tall tree's leaves. Unfortunately, the area was most likely swarming with Gale force guards just itching to arrest her. The only option was to wait until they cleared out to go back.

However, this could take hours to do and by the time they left, anything could have happened to her poor hat. Desperate to get it back, though, Elphaba landed and began to count the minutes until it was safe to return.

The stars shown brightly ahead by the time she set out again. It had been at least four hours since Elphaba had discovered the missing item and she hoped that this had been plenty of time for the soldiers to leave.

Nearing the area, she was relieved to see no fires or tents, signaling there was no people nearby. Cautiously, Elphaba landed among the trees, gracefully skidding across the forest ground. The hat should be in the largest tree, four branches up to the right. When she looked, though, it wasn't there.

Distraught, but not discouraged, she climbed the tree, looking to see if the wind might have blown it nearby. Every inch of the braches and leaves were searched, but it was nowhere in sight. Now very worried about her poor hat's fate, Elphaba slid down the trunk. It was officially the wrost birthday in her memory, beating even the shopping day.

Utterly depressed for losing what felt like an old friend, Elphaba subconciously fiddled with something she found on the ground, trying to figure out what in the world to do next.

It certainly wasn't easy to find another hat quite like _that_. Glinda had said that her grandmother had, in a moment of bad taste, sent it to her. Nobody, according to her friend, in their right mind would buy it except poor dear Granny. Now that Elphaba had begun to wear it, they were surely out of fashion...

Slowly, she became aware of the object that she was fingering. It was soft and velvety with a large brim and strange cone on the top...

Her heart lept, the hat had been found! She had been looking up high when it was literally under her nose the whole time.

Smiling, Elphaba put the hat on her head, happy to be reunited with it once more. Upon smoothing it down, though, she recievied a sharp stab on her thumb that throbbed painfully. Confused, she took the hat off and discovered what cut her was a pin attached to the hat.

And attached to the pin was a folded up note.

With trembling fingers, she flattened out the paper and was shocked to see a very familiar scrawl on it.

_Dear E.T.,_

_Careful where you put this! It's hard to find a Witch's hat these days!_

_Hope all is well. Sorry about the shooting, I tried to stop it. For now on, I'm telling them that the rumor of water melting you is true (don't ask, it's a long story). That way, they may be dumb enough to fill their bullets with water. Doubt it? You'd be surprised..._

_All my love,_

_F.T._

_P.S. Happy Birthday!_

Elphaba re-read the words several times before she was satisfied. Grinning in the most lovesick, Galinda-like way, she reflected that perhaps this wasn't such a bad birthday after all.

**Bonus Points: Can anybody say why I picked March 17 as Elphaba's birthday?**


End file.
